Modern Family season 7 preview: Haley-Andy romance will have 'lots of ups and downs'

Family sitcoms aren’t typically known for their cliff-hanger finales. (“Will they buy the gray Landskrona sectional or the dark brown Landskrona sectional?! Stay tuned.“) But Modern Family‘s season 6 capper struck a chord with eager shippers, when the Pritchett’s manny Andy (Adam DeVine) ran off to propose to girlfriend Beth (played by Laura Ashley Samuels) — despite his feelings for Dunphy daughter Haley (Sarah Hyland). But, as co-creator Christopher Lloyd promises us (and sneak peek clips have shown us), the Haley-Andy flirtation is far from over.

“The premiere follows a tumultuous summer that takes up where we left off with lots of ups and downs between those two,” Lloyd says. “It’s a relationship that we follow through the entire season. We enjoy writing them — they’re great together.”

Lloyd notes that with the Dunphy siblings coming of age, the writers’ room is able to explore story lines that haven’t been available to them in seasons past.

“It’s the other side of that coin,” Lloyd explains. “I mean, if it’s a negative to be writing a family show [because] you don’t get to chart relationships, will-they-or-won’t-they stuff in the way that you might for, say, a workplace comedy, the plus is the kids get older and they become completely new characters.”

This sentiment will likely ring most true for middle sibling Alex (Ariel Winter), as she heads to college.

“We have her with a roommate who’s kind of a fun new character,” Lloyd teases. “She’s just an intense, hyperactive, type-A 15-year-old — this genius prodigy who gets into CalTech. And the dynamic between Alex and her roommate in an odd way starts to be reminiscent of the Haley-Alex relationship — only Alex is now in the Haley role.”